Taking care of a child in a zombie apocalypse world is never a good experience. No matter how hard you try.
E. Aster Bunymund Little peek. A little piece of his own little world.
Halloween Vices and Virtues - Day Two - @buggiebreak
Zombies/Gluttony
Trigger Warning: Main Character Death
Drabble after the cut.
She tried to ignore it at first. The gradual paling of his skin, the bags under his eyes that seem to get darker and darker, but when the cloudiness sweeps over his pupils she can’t ignore it any longer.
The infection.
Everyone’s different she tells herself, there is still time.
But whether it is days, weeks, months. Eventually the hunger always takes over.
She’s started to check herself for signs of infection as each day passes. But her eyes remain as blue and clear as ever. And she considers the weight of the gun in her hand.
He’s stopped sleeping now. Just lies there with his eyes wide staring into the black above them.
Blue veins marr his skin and she knows. She knows the hunger will soon overtake him and he won’t be hers anymore. Just a shell, holding the parasite within.
“Juggie,” she whispers, and his eyes flit towards her. There is still concern there and it almost makes her change her mind. “Close your eyes for me.” And he does.
The metal feels heavy in her hands, and she can’t fight the tremble as she cocks the trigger. The click makes him flinch.
She presses the muzzle against his temple, and his breathing slows. Her hand runs over his cheek as she ignores the signs of infection, seeing Jughead as he was and how she will remember him in the time to come.
“I love you, Betts,” he whispers and she chokes back a sob.
“I love you too.”
The bang is deafening, the only sound for miles as it seems to echo around her.
She had no idea how, but the some sort of high-up authority had managed to take over any remaining signals, blasting their message everywhere that still had a functioning radio, television, telephone.
Of course, there was an extent to the cure. Those who had already become fully infected, the undead, wouldn’t change back. They were to be killed. People who’d been bitten, but had yet to change were a 50/50 chance. Everyone else that was still alive, however, was safe. But that was just from the virus. Of course, malnutrition could be fixed well enough, but there were so many other issues that would never go away.
Gideon was still a mess, although he was better than before. Sebastien wouldn’t let his daughter out of his sight, and Zelda refused to let her guard down, ever. Mason was in a constant state of grieving after Sophie’s death. Claudine was born into a world of madness. Elise had watched her entire family get murdered. Cassia hardly ever slept anymore, dreams haunted by everything she pushed away when she was awake.
They were alive, they were cured. They were okay. The danger was gone. Groups of Canadian and American soldiers had set up towns scattered across North American, safe areas where they were trying to rebuild a proper society. The one closest to them was in Vancouver.
--
Their first night in the safe area, Cassia woke up in the middle of the night screaming. She remembered everything that happened before, laying in bed with Gideon, the zombies, Scott coming out of the house by himself. Scott, for months after, trying to comfort her and at the same time trying to insult Gideon. Finding Gideon again, only to have everyone turn on them and try to kill him. Mason agreeing with everyone else that maybe he was better off dead.
Her dreams were often haunted by things that had happened, by things that she thought were going to happen, but this time it all felt like it was happening all over again. She was losing Gideon all over again, back where it all began, and it all overwhelmed her.
But it had just been her dreams. As soon as she woke up, she woke up to Gideon still beside her, wide awake and holding her close, stroking her hair in an attempt to calm her down. For a long time, she was careful not to fall asleep when she was watching Gideon, until one time she accidentally did and let her small secret known. Since then, he was next to her more often than not when she woke up in the middle of the night, shaking or crying or screaming.
“Don’t be a hero again.” Her whisper came out coarse, her throat stinging ever so slightly from her scream. “I don’t care who’s screaming for help, don’t send me away so you can be a hero.”
“I don’t plan on it.” He spoke calmly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
Tilting her head back, the blonde stared at him with a serious expression. “Even if it’s Elise.” She lowered her voice, in case by some weird chance the young girl heard them. “I’m coming with you.”
---------
“Please stop crying.” Zelda whispered to the infant in her arms, bouncing her how she’d seen Sebastien do a million times before. It was doing little to nothing for her, though, and it was only bringing more and more frustration to the woman. This child had nothing to cry about. She didn’t know what was going on in the world, she hadn’t lost anyone.
“Is she throwing a fit again?” Sebastien’s groggy voice startled her, but at the same time flooded her with relief.
“She won’t stop. I don’t know what’s wrong.” There were tears in her eyes, making her even more frustrated than she was before.
Sitting up on the bed, he took the baby from the woman and almost instantly she stopped crying.
“Claudine hates me.” She had been separated from Sebastien and their child for a month after giving birth. If the roles were switched, she would probably be miserable with her mother too. Now, seven months later, Claudine seemed to have no idea who she was. Zelda couldn’t blame her though, she hardly felt like a mother to the child either.
“Elle est âgée de huit mois, elle ne peut pas vous haïr. (She is eight months old, she can not hate you.)” The man spoke softly, rocking the baby in his arms as she cooed in contentment.
“Elle ne sait pas qui je suis, Sebastien. (She does not know who I am, Sebastien.)” She sighed, keeping her gaze on the man and their child. It was definitely something she never thought she would see. Sebastien, with a baby in his arms, looking at her like she was the greatest little miracle in the world. Big, bad, scary Sebastien who was so in love with his child that he refused to let anyone but her hold Claudine. “Elle sait que vous êtes son père (She knows you are her father), but I’m a stranger.”
Standing up, the man placed the baby in the crib beside the bed, turning back to Zelda almost immediately and sitting beside her on the bed. “Vous n'êtes pas un étranger pour elle. Elle sait juste que vous êtes mal à l'aise. (You are not a stranger to her. She just knows that you're uncomfortable.)”
The redhead just gave him a skeptical look, clearly not believing what he was saying. Sebastien just pressed on, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Les choses vont aller mieux, vous verrez. (Things will get better, you’ll see.)”
Okay, this is going to sound like an idiotic question, but what are the backslashes after the tag for? I see a lot of people doing it, but I don't get the point or what it's for.
it’s so the post won’t show up in the tag its tagged as like say #food will show up in the ‘food’ tag but #food // will not if that makes sense?? its just so it doesn’t clog up tags
zombiesau replied to your post “Could you all help me, maybe?”
Try listening to music without lyrics, turn off your phone/electronics, and if you're typing it on your computer, close all other windows and tabs. If you're typing it offline like on Microsoft Word, turn off your wifi too. Hope this helps!
